The battle for the future of the Open Web is taking place as a new document model merges into a platform for highly graphical, interactive and information rich applications. Open source communities vie with dominant vendors Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Nokia and Google to stake out their claims as open source innovations collide with standards consortia and proprietary alternatives.

Older teenagers have turned their backs on Facebook, an EU-funded study has found. Young people are opting for alternative social networks like Twitter and WhatsApp, while the "worst people of all, their parents, continue to use the service."

Analyzing how 16-18 year-old teenagers from eight EU countries
use Facebook, researchers came to the conclusion that youngsters
are no hooked on Facebook any longer while their parents are.
According to the head anthropologist on the research team, Daniel
Miller, "mostly they feel embarrassed even to be associated
with it."

"Where once parents worried about their children joining
Facebook, the children now say it is their family that insists
they stay there to post about their lives. Parents have worked
out how to use the site and see it as a way for the family to
remain connected. In response, the young are moving on to cooler
things," Miller, who is also professor of Material Culture
at University College London, explained in his article for the
academic news website, The Conversation.

He said year 2013 marked the start of what looks likely to be
"a sustained decline" of what had been "the most
pervasive" of all social networking sites.

Monday, December 30, 2013

Oh, great. My router and all of my hard drives have NSA backdoors in them. And my BIOS on the Linux box may be infected with a backdoor. What are the odds that NSA has not developed similar capability for the UEFI on our two newer Windows boxes?

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Copyblogger originally shared:
These 4 Exercises Are Guaranteed to Make You a Better Writer
Your writing is good. You know how to position words to make clear sentences. You can string together sentences into meaningful paragraphs. You can take those sentences and arrange them into a persuasive post.
But you've plateaued. Your writing is getting predictable, stale, and forgettable. And you're not sure how to break out of that mold.
If that's you, then you need to check out these exercise from MIT designed to help you evaluate your copy.
You'll learn things like:
- Your sentence length pattern
- If you correctly emphasize the important parts in your sentences and paragraphs.
- Whether you lean on simple, complex, or compound sentences.
Analyzing your writing style will highlight your weaknesses, and give you a plan to make your writing better.
So, when you've got a few minutes, perform these exercises:
http://writing.mit.edu/wcc/resources/writers/analyzingyourownstyle
+Demian Farnworth ﻿

A lot of anger here but some valid criticism too. Well placed in context by some very choice embedded links.
I'm not a frequent commenter on YouTube. In fact, I don't think I ever have. But YouTube comments definitely got messed up big-time by the integration with Google+. If you follow the first link "the basics" you'll see pretty quickly that some of the problems can't be fixed without crippling Google+.

Thursday, December 05, 2013

Republic Wireless provides a new kind of smartphone cellular service based on a technology that handles the roll over from WiFi to 3G or 4G cellular in the middle of a call. Very cool, but currently it only works with specially outfitted (custom ROM) Android Moto X phones. (They are working on how to port this custom ROM technology to all Android phones :)
The concept is based on the fact that WiFi is cheap, very open and near universally available; while 3G and 4G Cellular is expensive, contractual and proprietary. The idea is to leverage free WiFi wherever they can, and roll over to the Sprint 3G - 4G network when needed.
Very cool and the business model seems to have it right.
.........................................................................
"Which Moto X plan is right for me?
Here's the lowdown on our four new plan options. Depending on your needs and how you want to use your phone, you can choose the plan that's best for you.
$5 WiFi only plan
This is the most powerful tool in your arsenal of options. Why? You can drop your smartphone bill—at will—to $5. If you’re interested in getting serious about cutting costs, you can use this tool to best leverage the WiFi in your life to reduce your phone bill. It’s also the ultimate plan for home base stickers and kids who don’t need a cellular plan. It’s fully unlimited data, talk and text—on WiFi only.
$10 WiFi + Cell Talk & Text
One of our members, 10thdoctor said : “I use WiFi for everything, except when I'm traveling and for voice at my school.” Yep, this is the perfect plan for that. Our members are around WiFi about 90% of the time. During that 10% of the time where you’re away from WiFi, this plan gives you cellular backup for communicating when you need to. This plan both cuts costs and accommodates what’s quickly becoming the norm: a day filled with WiFi.
$25 WiFi + Cell (3G) Talk, Text & Data
Lots of people are on 3G plans today and are paying upwards of $100 a month on their smartphone bills. That’s nuts. This plan is here for you during the times when you need the backup of cell data. For folks who want to surf Facebook and check email in the car (as a passenger!) or who travel regularly for work, this option lets them enjoy all the benefits of WiFi with the luxury of 3G cellular data. You may find you only want this cellular back up part of the month—no problem! Switching during the month to the $5 or $10 plan is easy, and is a great way to keep more money in your wallet.
$40 WiFi + Cell (4G) Talk, Text & Data
We heard you tell us that you wanted a super fast option, so we added this arrow to your quiver. This plan is here for you when you’ve got a road warrior kind of month, and you’ve got a serious need for speed. Have to get work done on a long train ride? And need to work fast? This is your guy. Just like the other plans, it’s just a few clicks away."

No. We're the first-ever wireless provider to bundle WiFi calling with access to cellular whenever you need it. Depending on the plan you choose, your Republic Wireless phone will have unlimited* access to data, talk and text when using the Sprint cellular network. Note that the $5 plan offered by Republic is WiFi only and the $10 plan includes cellular talk and text (no data). All Republic plans include unlimited data, talk and text on WiFi.

Can I switch between plans?

Yes! When you purchase a new Moto X phone, you’ll be able to choose whatever plan you like—and you can also switch plans up to twice per month as your needs change. For example, if you know you’ll be taking a vacation and might require more cell data one week, you can switch to a cell data plan right from your phone and then switch back to a WiFi “friendlier” plan once you return home.

This month, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Department of Homeland Security must make its plan to shut off the Internet and cellphone communications available to the American public. You, of course, may now be thinking: What plan?! Though President Barack Obama swiftly disapproved of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak turning off the Internet in his country (to quell widespread civil disobedience) in 2011, the US government has the authority to do the same sort of thing, under a plan that was devised during the George W. Bush administration. Many details of the government’s controversial “kill switch” authority have been classified, such as the conditions under which it can be implemented and how the switch can be used. But thanks to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), DHS has to reveal those details by December 12 — or mount an appeal. (The smart betting is on an appeal, since DHS has fought to release this information so far.) Yet here’s what we do know about the government’s “kill switch” plan:

What are the constitutional problems? Civil liberties advocates argue that kill switches violate the First Amendment and pose a problem because they aren’t subject to rigorous judicial and congressional oversight. “There is no court in the loop at all, at any stage in the SOP 303 process,” according to the Center for Democracy and Technology. ”The executive branch, untethered by the checks and balances of court oversight, clear instruction from Congress, or transparency to the public, is free to act as it will and in secret.” David Jacobs of EPIC says, “Cutting off communications imposes a prior restraint on speech, so the First Amendment imposes the strictest of limitations…We don’t know how DHS thinks [the kill switch] is consistent with the First Amendment.” He adds, “Such a policy, unbounded by clear rules and oversight, just invites abuse.”